Though accounts from American troops claim the slaughter was sanctioned, Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton, nicknamed "Bloody Tarleton" after the battle, wrote in his memoir that the British troops acted in desperation at his apparent death when his horse fell beneath him:
"... to a report amongst the cavalry, that they had lost their commanding officer, which stimulated the soldiers to a vindictive asperity not easily restrained. Upwards of one hundred officers and men were killed on the spot; three colors ... fell into the possession of the victors."
Between a famous table and some old books, famed auction house Sotheby's New York will be selling off those colors. A little bit of South Carolina history, the flags have prompted Rep. Catherine Ceips, R-Beaufort, to lead a charge in the Statehouse to bring them back to the state.
"It's important to hang on to that kind of stuff," she said Friday.
Last month, Ceips introduced legislation that would request the State Museum spend reserve funds in the state budget or pursue partnerships or private donations to bid on the flags when they're put on the auction block on Flag Day, June 14. An exhibition of the flags opens June 9.
Sotheby's estimates that the flags, along with a fourth held by Tarleton from a New York victory, are worth between $4 million and $10 million, but it's unknown what they will actually sell for. Ceips has said she expects the price to be between $2 million and $3 million for the three Waxsaws flags.
There are only about 30 Revolutionary War flags that remain today, and all but the four for auction are publicly held, according to Sotheby's. The Waxsaws flags also are considered to be the only complete collection of American battle flags left from the war.
"We have so few important artifacts from that war related to South Carolina," said Fritz Hamer, chief curator at the South Carolina State Museum.
Specific accounts of the battle's conclusion have varied with claims Tarleton blatantly ignored the white flag raised by the colonial troops and some not mentioning the white flag at all.
"Regardless of whether there was a massacre or not, (the battle) became a symbol to rejuvenate the Patriot cause," Hamer said.
After the battle, Tarleton would collect the flags and bring them back to England following his eventual capture and the British defeat.
For more than two centuries the flags were displayed in family homes, flanking a portrait of Tarleton that included fallen American flags at his feet. In late 2005, Capt. Christopher Tarleton Fagan decided to put the flags up for auction and donate the portrait to a British museum.
The primary flag of the regiment, made of gold silk, has a painted image of a beaver gnawing the base of a palmetto tree above the Latin motto "perseverando," or "by perseverance," a colonial symbol of the patriot fight against the British. The smaller flags, one blue and one yellow, have "regiment" written in similar lettering.
With lengthy discussions on property tax relief and looming budget talks, the Senate has not yet taken up Ceips' resolution. Hamer said that the museum may seek private donations or partnerships if the General Assembly fails to act.